Uni funding cuts spark national outrage

The tertiary education union has vowed to launch a major campaign against university funding cuts in the lead-up to the federal election, as hundreds of students rallied in a national protest.

National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) general secretary Graham McCulloch said the academics' union would hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss action against $2.3 billion in cuts expected in Tuesday's budget.

"We will be recommending that the union take up this matter in the largest single campaign we have ever run in a federal election," Mr McCulloch said.

Police estimate about 1400 people marched through Melbourne's CBD, where Victorian College of the Arts students led protesters in a chorus of the song, Do You Hear The People Sing, from the theatrical production of Les Miserables.

In Sydney more than 100 protesters brought traffic on a major road to a standstill, and few hundred rallied in Adelaide.

Holding banners that said 'No cuts, no fees' and chanting 'Julia Gillard get out!' the Sydney protesters marched along busy Parramatta Road, accompanied by dozens of police officers on foot and horseback.

Police pushed students off the road near Railway Square in central Sydney.

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NTEU national president Jeannie Rea said the poorest students would be hit in the next round of cuts.

"Every time they make these cuts students get hit again, and this time the poorest students are the ones that are having the start-up scholarships getting ripped from them," Ms Rea said.

"More than $4 billion has been slashed from higher education federal budget allocations since 2011."

Federal MP for Melbourne and deputy Greens leader Adam Bandt addressed the Melbourne rally from Canberra, saying universities were critical if Australia was to be more than a quarry and a nice place to visit.

"The way to improve our whole education system is to put in place a proper mining tax," Mr Bandt said.

"We won't have a clever country if universities are only places for the wealthy."

Rallies were also held in Hobart, Launceston, Canberra, Darwin, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Perth, Armidale and Newcastle.

Earlier on Tuesday, police clashed with protesters outside Sydney University during a strike over proposed cuts to job security and staff conditions at the university.

The NTEU later said more than 700 staff and students protested in Sydney.

NTEU NSW secretary Genevieve Kelly said the organisation was committed to making the cuts an election issue.

"Federal government policies have opened up more university places to students but the resources to offer students a high quality experience haven't followed," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Thanks to the most recent cuts, the most disadvantaged students will find it harder to get their degrees."